224 IMPLEMENTS MADE OP BONE. 



macher, and is in the Smithsonian collection (No. 20527) labelled "Santa 

 Barbara". This harpoon-point, nearly 9 inches in length, is made of a 



Fig. 103. 



Bone harpoon or fish-spear, -J. 



portion of a rib of a cetacean. There are now no distinctly defined tool- 

 marks upon it. The slight curvature of the implement is that of the bone 

 in its natural condition. As shown in the figure, it is long and rather 

 slender, of nearly uniform width, tapering at the basal portion where it 

 was inserted into a shaft, and somewhat acutely pointed at the barbed 

 end. At a distance of It 3 ? inches from the end is a well-defined barb A 

 of an inch in length. 



Harpoons of bone similar to the above are quite common in Green- 

 land, and also in Northern Europe. Nilsson* mentions that implements, 

 "sharp pointed, with barbs on one side, are occasionally found in our ancient 

 peat-bogs in Scania." Usually these harpoons have more than one barb. 

 Dr. Rauf figures specimens from Alaska and Michigan, with three barbs, and 

 in both instances there is a perforation at the base for securing the shaft. 

 Some of those found in Scandinavia were simply notched for the attach- 

 ment of a cord which was also fastened to the shaft, but not so as to keep the 

 point and shaft together when the weapon was withdrawn from the body of 

 the animal struck. Of such an one, Nilsson remarks, "this harpoon-point 

 appears, like those from Greenland, to have been fastened to its long shaft 

 in such a manner as to be disengaged therefrom, when it stuck fast in the 

 harpooned animal, because above the point of attachment is a projection 

 over which the strap or line seems to have been tied." Nilsson further adds: 

 "It is very remarkable that among the objects which Messrs. Christy and 

 Lartet have found in the caves of Perigord, and which may be consid- 

 ered as being among the most ancient traces of man in Europe, are harpoons 

 of bone, which seem to have been helved in the same manner"; and also 



*Page 29, plate iv. tPage 64, figs. 240 and 241. 



